# EORTC 26981 / NCIC CE.3 (Stupp trial)

Source: https://onco.cc/trials/eortc-26981/  
OnCo record `eortc-26981` (Trial). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The 2005 trial that set the treatment every glioblastoma patient still receives. Nothing has replaced it in twenty years.

## Summary

EORTC 26981 with NCIC CE.3, the Stupp trial, NCT00006353, reported in 2005, set the treatment every glioblastoma patient still receives: radiotherapy with concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide, which nothing has replaced in twenty years. It randomised 573 patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma to radiotherapy with or without temozolomide, met its primary overall survival endpoint, and its five-year update in 2009 showed a small but real minority of long-term survivors, while the companion analysis by Hegi showed that MGMT promoter methylation predicts benefit. OnCo links it to temozolomide, the MGMT promoter methylation term, Martin J. van den Bent, Monika E. Hegi, Michael Weller and Roger Stupp, and to the brain as a bottleneck. The Stupp regimen has been the control arm of every glioblastoma trial since, and whether anything can beat it remains the field's central question.

## Fields

- Kind: Trial
- Status: positive
- Last checked: 2026-09-06
- Registry id: NCT00006353
- Phase: 3
- Setting: Newly diagnosed glioblastoma: radiotherapy + concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide vs radiotherapy alone
- Sponsor: EORTC / NCIC
- Enrolled: 575
- Result: OS 14.6 vs 12.1 months, HR 0.63.
- Outcomes: Overall survival: Radiotherapy + temozolomide 14.6 months vs Radiotherapy alone 12.1 months, HR 0.63; Overall survival at 5 years: Radiotherapy + temozolomide 9.8% vs Radiotherapy alone 1.9%
- Replication: The Stupp regimen has been the control arm of every glioblastoma trial since; the MGMT-methylated benefit was confirmed repeatedly.

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00006353: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00006353

## Connected records

- cancers: [Astrocytoma, IDH-mutant (grades 2 to 4)](https://onco.cc/cancers/idh-mutant-astrocytoma/), [Glioma & glioblastoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/glioblastoma/)
- technologies: [IMRT / IGRT (modern external beam)](https://onco.cc/technologies/imrt-igrt/)
- drugs: [Temozolomide](https://onco.cc/drugs/temozolomide/)
- companies: [EORTC](https://onco.cc/companies/curie-nki-eortc/)
- terms: [MGMT promoter methylation](https://onco.cc/terms/mgmt/)
- people: [Martin J. van den Bent](https://onco.cc/people/martin-van-den-bent/), [Michael Weller](https://onco.cc/people/michael-weller/), [Monika E. Hegi](https://onco.cc/people/monika-hegi/), [Roger Stupp](https://onco.cc/people/roger-stupp/)
- bottlenecks: [The brain: barrier and sanctuary](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-brain-delivery/)
- roadmaps: [Chemotherapy roadmap: mustard gas → curative combinations → the warhead inside smarter drugs](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/chemotherapy-roadmap/), [Radiotherapy roadmap: X-rays → shaped beams → fewer fractions, particles and FLASH](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/radiation-roadmap/)

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